I really enjoyed painting big models (Carnosaur, Stegadon, Slann etc) or units with low model counts (Rippers, Kroxigors etc) however as of late I've been painting my Temple Guard / Saurus warriors. I find myself spending something like an hour painting each one and dreading painting the next dozen or so identical models.... what's your method of dealing with the mind numbing pain that is painting a large unit??
Paint them as a production line, I do 4 at a time or if I just want a fast turn around I will do 10 but just a basic paint job of base, shade and drybrush
Do you go back to the basic paint job at a later date and brush them up with more detail? Or do you find them at a high enough standard to play with?
Listen to some music while painting and the time will fly by. Once I'm done listening to the entire original Star Wars trilogy soundtrack, I've got a small unit of Saurus Warriors finished Similar to Crowfoot, I paint models in assembly line style doing 5-10 at a time (depending on unit size). I work on the models until completely finished to my standard, which can feel like an slog but the finished models look great at the end. Just don't forget to take breaks when you feel tired.
I am using plastic archers as paint test dummies. (Sort of like Crash Test Dummies but less impactful.) So when I am painting other things and I end up with a puddle of paint that is just going to dry up. I will slap the remaining paint on an archer. (The plan for the archers is a raggle-taggle bunch of peasants so half a tunic red / the other half brown, etc. works.)
Its very hard. It takes me a long time (years) to finish. And then I have to base them It comes in fits and starts for me, always looking for inspiration.
Yeah tabletop standard is all I go for with the bulk units like skinks or warriors. If you want to add the extra detail for display purposes, take the extra time on the command units like the Alpha, musician, and standard bearer. But realistically, base, shade and drybrush is all you need to get them on the table.
I usually go 2 by 2. That way it doesn´t become too tiring and uninteresting for me. But when I want to paint faster I do so in batches of 10. Anyways, it mostly depends on the unit. I have come to the realization that when I paint infantry regiments the smaller the amount of models painted at a time the better the final paintjob quality (Despite doing the same steps) and the less boring it gets. But the overall time put into the whole squad increases exponentially. To keep myself motivated what I do is to have many projects at once, so if one afternoon I get fed up of one I can just carry on with other. For example, now I have 4 projects going on. One unit of 10 temple guards (for when I feel brave enough to continue the laborious process, which is mostly the case of when I haven´t been able to paint for some time), one stegadon that needs LOTS of GS scales, one airbrush test model (a historical plane) and the models of a board game. That way I can manage to avoid getting bored over painting the same thing working on the same project.
Just try and paint each one better than the last, Also I find that working on groups of 3-6 is a lot less daunting than looking at 60 unpainted minis.
Definitely! I painted 50 Skinks now and I noticed that my second 24 are a bit sloppy sometimes because I wanted to finish them quickly to get it over with. I would say do groups of five to ten maximum. BUT REMEMBER! take notes how you painted them so they are consistent if you paint some more at a later point and want them to look the same.
Good advice, I have a note book that has each model I painted broken down into base, shade and highlight and which part of the model.
.... I Just use a previously painted model as an example, It's usually pretty obvious what colors I used on it.
It is? Wow. I have so many ways of creating those blue tones on my models using different colors that I sometimes can't even tell the difference. So I note it down. Fun anecdote: For my Scuttlings I used a necrotic flesh base tone and a green glaze and a green shade to make their skin tones. Then I wanted to highlight some parts with bright green and noticed it is the same damn color and nobody can see any highlights! I could just have used that color instead of three layers of others.
Well If you can't tell the difference then it makes no difference. It's not like we are painting regimented space marines, living beings are bound to have some minor variation in skin tone from person to person.
That's true, models with a lot of skin are on of the reasons why I didn't choose SCE but Seraphon. Painting uniforms intimidates me.